iCED Using Digital Engagement Platform—Motivote—To Educate Voters

With Election Day less than two weeks away, Miami Dade College is working to increase voter engagement among students. 

To meet that goal the College’s Institute for Civic Engagement & Democracy partnered with two New York University alumni to offer Motivote, a nonpartisan voter engagement digital platform. 

Jess Riegal and Rachel Konowitz created the site when they were graduate students at NYU.  

“It makes the whole process of becoming an informed and educated voter fun,” said iCED’s Collegewide Director Josh Young.

Motivote allows students to complete a series of voting-related tasks, such as reading a sample ballot or creating a voter plan. Each task earns the user points that can be redeemed for prizes like Apple Airpods or Amazon gift cards.

More than 160 students across all eight campuses have joined Motivote since early October. The platform hopes to have more than 1,000 students by Election Day. 

Students or faculty must sign up as a member of a team—they can create a group with friends or join their campus team. 

There are nine teams listed on MDC’s Motivote site. So far, the Wolfson Campus team is in the lead with 5,288 points and 19 members. Kendall Campus is in second place with 4,313 points and 17 members. 

Even if students don’t have U.S. citizenship, they can participate. Instead of preparing to vote for the Nov. 3 election, they can rack up points at the prize store and motivate eligible friends to vote.

“This platform is very inclusive,” Young said. “We do not want to turn anyone away. We want everyone to participate.”  

The platform’s team reached out to iCED in 2019 because of MDC’s diversity and campaigns to increase student voting. 

Young piloted the platform at Hialeah Campus during the general election in 2019, where there were four local races for the city council. 

“Students enjoyed how it made the process of voting social, easy, and fun,” Young said. “Motivote supports our students from registering all the way through casting their vote so it met our goal of helping every MDC student understand why their vote is important and how to navigate the voting process with their friends.”

The platform chooses Motivote strategists, who are student leaders to recruit peers and plan what the next tasks and prizes will be. The strategists work at least 10 hours a week, complete a one-hour orientation and training, and attend weekly virtual meetings with the coordinator and other strategists. 

“I’ve been wanting to get civically engaged for a while so Motivote has been the perfect opportunity for me,” said Christopher Yera, who became a Motive strategist at Wolfson Campus two weeks ago. “I have been contacting peers, faculty, and clubs to spread the word about Motivote. I have been posting reminders, and sharing informative posts on my social media to engage with my peers.”

Heily Rivas, a Motivote strategist at Hialeah Campus, compares the platform to iCED’s Civic Action Scorecard. Both of them encourage students to become civically engaged with a point system. However, points earned with the scorecard can be exchanged for service-learning hours while Motivote’s points can help students win prizes.

“If people don’t vote, their beliefs will never translate into policies that can have effects on the community,” Rivas said.